Law firm out $2.1 million in African fraud (this you gotta read)

Detroit Free Press ^ | September 21, 2002 | DAVID ASHENFELTER

[Liz]

He said he was an official with the Ministry of Mining in Pretoria, South Africa.

And he offered to pay a $4.5-million fee to a 59-year-old Rochester Hills woman if she would help him transfer $18 million from South Africa to a bank account in the United States.

[Liz]

Can you believe people atr still falling for the Nigerian-type scam? This woman cleaned out the law firm's client accounts and nobody noticed? The bank approved wire transfers to foreign accounts though she was not authorized to make such transfers? Just unbelievable how gullible these people were.

[Joe Bonforte]

Can you believe people atr still falling for the Nigerian-type scam?

Well, somebody is falling for it, or the Nigerians would stop sending the faxes and emails. I get one every two or three months, and I've heard of folks who get several a week.

[gcruse]

I think it is inexcusably arrogant to refer to people as sheeple, but this woman...

[FR_addict]

When I got one of these letters, I tried to get the post office to do something about it, but they wouldn't follow up.

It seems to me like they could set up a sting operation on these guys.

Anyway I hope this story gets some publicity. There are probably a few gullible people out there that are using their own money in hopes of striking it rich.

[July 4th]

He said a manager at a Southfield branch, whom Poet befriended, approved all of the wire transfers even though Poet was not authorized at the bank to make such transfers.

Hmmm...it sounds like the law firm might not be out $2.1 million for too long...

[Glenn]

Can you believe people atr still falling for the Nigerian-type scam?

If we truly had a government that worked, we'd have invaded Nigeria a long time ago. They have more scams going than the sky has stars.

To amuse myself these days, I go shopping for big ticket items on eBay. There are hundreds upon hundreds of Western Union frauds going on over there. Easy to spot. No feedback. Low price. Shoot an email and they tell you all about how protected you are by Western Union.

It would be child's play for the FBI to stop this stuff in its tracks but they aren't going to do a thing. Pissing off foreign governments by cutting off a supply of fool's money isn't acceptable, apparently. Oh, well. Better the government concentrate on more important issues like pretending to look for illegal aliens and busting dope smokers.

[Liz]

I got an email few months ago from one of the Nigerian scammers. Figured nobody in law enforcement was likely to do anything about it.

[Liz]

Oh, well. Better the government concentrate on more important issues like pretending to look for illegal aliens and busting dope smokers.

......and trying to find out what happened pre-9/11.

[Liz]

Law firm's already confirmed they would sue Bank One.

[PackerBoy]

Prediction (write this down): The Bank will settle (confidentially) with the Law Firm. Bank One has a lot of money, and a lot more exposure.

I had a case like this a few years ago and, after some kicking and screaming, the Bank coughed up lots of money. Banks usually dislike bad PR about their lack of good judgment in managing corporate accounts. And just about every business knows that some form of embezzlement is always possible, if only their bank looks the other way or is asleep at the switch.

[Liz]

The scammers are very clever.....and know human weakness. Dangling $4M in front of people makes them do odd things. The woman probably saw it as her ship finally coming in. She certainly wasn't a serial thief.

[Cicero]

I love those names. Ann Marie Poet and Mary Kay Bean.

[Liz]

I attribute it to the failure of the educational system. We need to develop critical thinking skills instead of brainwashing students with liberal socially engineered pap now rampant in public schools K-12, and higher ed.

[tjg]

What is a western union fraud?

[Glenn]

What is a western union fraud?

The most popular one is to have you send money via Western Union to yourself at their address. You give them the control number you receive from WU so they can check to see if the money has been posted and send your package out. After you have received your package, you call WU and change the wire to their name. They assure you they cannot access the funds until you do. Your package will never arrive, of course. They've used the control number to fetch your money the moment you sent it to them. WU takes no responsiblity, by the way. Search for "western union fraud" on google.com. Fun reading when you have nothing better to do.

[txzman]

Anyone wanna bet she's a registered.........Democrat? LOL!

[Old Professer]

What is a western union fraud?

The Hollywood Actors Guild?

[DoctorMichael]

Go here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/752202/posts

[gcruse]

If we truly had a government that worked, we'd have invaded Nigeria a long time ago.

Heh.  Is this what pre-emptive couch-potato soldiering leads to?

[gcruse]

She certainly wasn't a serial thief.

Yet she was the first one to rat out
fellow employees, bless her heart.

[lonestar]

I got this email just this week. I have since embezzled $$$.

FROM: DR BENARDDUKE

ECOBANK LOME TOGO,

WEST AFRICA

YOUR URGENT ATTN SIR,

WITH DUE REGARDS MY NAME IS DR BENARDDUKE, THE MANAGER CREDIT AN FOREIGN BILLS OF ECOBANK LOME TOGO [ECB] .I AM WRITING IN RESPECT OF FOREIGN CUSTOMER OF MY BANK WITH ACCOUNT NUMBER 14- 255-2004/utb/t WHO PERISHED IN A PLANE CRASH [ETHIOPIAN AIRLINE 961] WITH OTHER PASSENGERS ABOARD. SIR, SINCE THE DEMISE OF THIS OUR CUSTOMER I PERSONALLY HAVE WATCHED WITH KEEN INTEREST TO SEE THE NEXT OF KIN BUT ALL HAS PROVED ABORTIVE AS NO ONE HAS COME TO CLAIM HIS FUNDS OF USD.10.5 M, [ TEN MILLION FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS]HAS BEEN WITH MY BANK FOR A VERY LONG TIME.ON THIS NOTE I DECIDED TO SEEK FOR WHOM HIS NAME SHALL BE USED AS THE NEXT OF KIN AS NO ONE HAS COME UP TO BE THE NEXT OF KIN. AND THE BANKING ETHICS HERE DOES NOT ALLOW SUCH MONEY TO STAY MORE THAN FOUR YEARS,BECUASE AFTER FOUR YEARS THE MONEY WILL BE RECALLED TO THE BANK TREASURY AS UNCLAIMED IN VIEW OF THIS I GOT YOUR IMPRESIVE CONTACT THROUGH MY COUNTRY'S FOREIGN TRADE MISSION DIRECTORY,AND I THERFORE CONSIDER YOUR FAVOURABLE TO BE USED AS THE NEXT OF KIN TO THE DECEASED.

THE REQUEST OF THE FOREIGNER AS A NEXT OF KIN IN THIS BUSINESS IS OCCASIONED BY THE FACT THAT THE CUSTOMER WAS A FOREIGNER AND A TOGOLESE CANNOT STAND AS THE NEXT OF KIN TO A FOREIGNER. I AGREED THAT USD 2.5 M OF THIS MONEY WILL BE FOR YOU AS A FOREIGN PARTNER IN RESPECT OF PROVIDING AN ACCOUNT,WHILE THE REST WILL BE FOR ME, THEREAFTER I WILL VISIT YOUR COUNTRY FOR DISBURSEMENT AS I AM ALMOST DUE FOR RETIREMENT .

THEREFORE TO ENDEAVOUR THE IMMEDIATE TRANSFER OF THIS FUND TO ACCOUNT AS APPLY FIRST TO THE BANK AS A RELATION TO THE DISEASED INDICATING YOUR BANK NAME,YOUR BANK ACCOUNT NUMBER, YOUR PRIVATE TELEPHONE NUMBER, AND FAX NUMBER FOR EASY COMMUNICATION AND LOCATION WHERE THE MONEY WILL BE REMITTED.UPON THE RECEIPT OF YOUR I WILL SEND YOU BY FAX OR E- MAIL THE APPLICATION AND THE NEXT STEP TO TAKE.I WIL NOT FAIL TO BRING TO YOUR NOTICE THAT THIS BUSINESS IS HITCH FREE AND THAT YOU SHOULD NOT ENTERTAIN ANY FEAR AS THE WHOLE REQUIRED ARRANGEMENT AS BEEN MADE FOR THETRANSFER.YOU SHOULD CONTACT ME AS A MATTER OF FACT IMMEDIATELY AS SOON AS YOU RECEIVE THIS LETTER.TRUSTING TO HEAR FROM YOU AS SOON AS POSIBLE.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

DR BENARDDUKE ECOBANK LOME TOGO

WEST AFRICA.

[Liz]

I WIL NOT FAIL TO BRING TO YOUR NOTICE THAT THIS BUSINESS IS HITCH FREE

Hitch-free? Good Lord, anybody who'd fall for that line..........

[Liz]

Heheheheh. Good one.

[gcruse]

The African crop of non-capital letters seems to have failed. Must have been the drought.

[Liz]

Gotta be a dim Dem.

[Liz]

Weird.

[BossLady]

If you can get past the run-on sentences, capitals and non-punctuation....you still end up with this one:

"AS A NEXT OF KIN IN THIS BUSINESS IS OCCASIONED BY THE FACT THAT THE CUSTOMER WAS A FOREIGNER AND A TOGOLESE CANNOT STAND AS THE NEXT OF KIN TO A FOREIGNER."

'is occassioned'????? (Where is Marlowe when you need him?)

So if you are Togolese.....you cannot have foreign relatives??? LOL

[jws3sticks]

What Ms. Ann Marie Poet suffers from, besides total and complete stupidity, is a terminal case of greed.

What the law firm suffers from in a total lack of control. While they may eventually get their buckaroos back, they must be the laughing stock of the entire neighborhood.

Poor ol' Bank One can't fight their way out of a wet paper bag on this one. Suckers!

Don't forget; when the big guy in the sky decides to give this globe its final enema, the pipe will easily be fit into downtown Lagos.

[John Lenin]

Gotta be a dim

The FBI said Poet, a bookkeeper for a small Berkley law firm

[isasis]

Has anybody ever heard "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is"? I can't beleive how scammable (new word?) some people are.

[lonestar]

For those who might be interested in claiming this "prize," here are two addresses to contact.

From: "benard duke" benardduke@ureach.com

To: imranahmed272@hotmail.com

Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2002 4:35 AM

Subject: [none]

[CobaltBlue]

I got that one too. Would that life were so simple.

[CobaltBlue]

W.C. Fields, who was a conman when he was a kid, had a line about cons - "You can't cheat an honest man."

Nobody honest would fall for one of those Nigerian hoaxes. Only people who want something for nothing.

Embezzlement is one of the nastiest crimes because only people who are trusted can get away with it.

[SES1066]

Can you believe people are still falling for the Nigerian-type scam?

...a bookkeeper for a small Berkley law firm...

The answer is contained in the story. This is, after all, the same city that believes that they can establish a nuclear-free zone, a zone from ground level to space clear of all weaponry and multiple other 'good intentions' passed by the city council over the years. This poor woman probably believed that, if worst came to worst, she could have a city council resolution passed to collect from these scammers!

[boris]

I love that a law firm got burned.

[gunshy]

I answered one of these e-mails and told the person on the other end that I would be happy to work with them but that I needed a payment of 100,000 dollars as good faith on their part. Never heard from them again.

[Gone_Postal]

When I got one of these letters, I tried to get the post office to do something about it, but they wouldn't follow up.

It seems to me like they could set up a sting operation on these guys.

Anytime you get one of these send it to the justice dept.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

The alleged scam ended Sept. 4, when the Olsman Mueller & James law firm was told that a $36,000 settlement check to a client had bounced.

Jules Olsman, president of the firm, said he contacted the firm's bank to find out what happened. After getting the runaround, he said, he called the FBI and eventually found out what Poet had done. Hoppe said she drained all of the firm's accounts.

"This is just absolutely beyond description," Olsman said Friday

"It's unbelievable that she fell for this," said FBI Special Agent James Hoppe, who is investigating the case. "She was gullible -- gullible and had access to $2.1 million."

Something stinks here. Ann Marie Poet is able to embezzle 98 percent of the firms assets before the owner notices? Seems to me, it wasn't the Nigerians, it was the sleezy Lawyer owner who set up the scam. And he gets to sue the bank for a second crack at the loot. If I were the bank, I would get a crack detective to look into the origin of the Nigerian letter.

[Publius6961]

I would respond to this thread but I would hate to be banned forever Jim Robinson and get accused of being every vile thing in the universe if I did...

Good luck.

[BJungNan]

But as angry as he is with Poet, Olsman said, he's even more annoyed with Bank One.

Typical scum lawyer. Blames the bank when he had absolutlely no internal accounting controls. Can you imagine one person having sole access to this amount of funds? The sad part is this scum bag will end up suing the bank and get his money back.

Lawyers, they are lower than Nigerian con artists.

[rogue yam]

The law firm is located in Berkley, Michigan, not in Berkeley, California. Note the different spelling.

What I'm seeing here is collusion between the bookkeeper and the guy at the bank. No way should she have been able to clean out all of the law firm's accounts. They probably figured they would use the firm's money to earn the "commission" and then return the funds to the law firm's accounts before anyone was the wiser. Once money started disappearing they couldn't back out because they knew that eventually their embezzlement would be found out. So they kept embezzling and transfering more and more funds, hoping against hope that the Africans would finally make good on their promises and bail our two entrepreneurs out.

Based on the locations of the crime and other clues I have a budding theory on why the bank officer and the bookkeeper were able to establish such a bond of trust with one another and why they together were so willing to believe the word of unknown "Africans" but I will keep it to myself lest I be charged with "profiling."

[FreedomPoster]

Law firm's already confirmed they would sue Bank One

If the events are as told here, I don't know why they even have to threaten. The bank ought to just pony up and be done with it.

[SES1066]

The law firm is located in Berkley, Michigan, not in Berkeley, California. Note the different spelling.

Shucks should have known that it was too good to be true! I'll try to do better research in the future.

[Jimmy Valentine]

This is one of the most durable scams going. It is always being worked somewhere, and a surprising number of supposedly intelligent people fall for it.

Regards,

[mhking]

"Hold muh beer 'n watch this!" PING....

If you want on or off this list, please let me know!
This has come about after much badgering by you, my friends and extended family...

[Erasmus]

Well, somebody is falling for it, or the Nigerians would stop sending the faxes and emails. I get one every two or three months, and I've heard of folks who get several a week.

I get one on average every couple of weeks.

Hmmm. I wonder if they're profiling.....

[eggman]

"We don't comment on customer relationships," said Bank One spokeswoman Mary Kay Bean. "All businesses need to have the right accounting and financial controls, and we urge our customers to be diligent about checking their balances."

Seems Bank One needs to follow their own advice. The law firm had financial controls in place but the bank ingored them.

[woofie]

I did this and made $6 million...sort of

[Rome2000]

This woman Poet sounds uniquely qualified for Government work.

She needs to move to DC and get an Assistant Secretary job with the Department of Homeland Security.

[AK2KX]

You would think that banks in the US would be on the alert and question any wire transfers to banks in Nigeria. Or would that constitute "profiling"?